The reason it succeeded is cause Hollywood really wanted nothing to do with it. Without Hollywood execs constant, almost always crappy meddling, they were able to put together a competent movie based on a video game.

Plus everyone was able to show off their signature moves (Sub-Zero's freeze, Sonya's neck-snap, Cage's dick punch, Liu's bicycle kick, "GET OVER HERE!")

And I love this quote: "My philosophy always was: the reason why people fail making movies from videogames is because they try to make movies from videogames," Kasanoff explains, somewhat gnomically. "I thought: we're not making a movie based on a videogame, we're making a movie based on the story that the videogame is based on. The story is the centre of the wheel and the videogame is the extension of one of the spokes."

iirc Mortal Kombat actually had people do their moves in the movie, while Street Fighter was just a bunch of normal people and it was really bad, but Van Damme did do a back flip kick which was supposed to be a flash kick, I guess, and Bison did fly through the air which was supposed to be a psycho crusher, maybe. really bad.

falcon176:iirc Mortal Kombat actually had people do their moves in the movie, while Street Fighter was just a bunch of normal people and it was really bad, but Van Damme did do a back flip kick which was supposed to be a flash kick, I guess, and Bison did fly through the air which was supposed to be a psycho crusher, maybe. really bad.

It was worth just for the scenery chewing of Raul Julia. He knew full well what kind of movie he was in and had fun with it.

A movie I havent seen mentioned here yet: Dead or Alive. Sure it was terrible, but it was still pretty fun. Plus, Eric Roberts.

I vaguely recall a Super Mario brothers porn parody starring Ron Jeremy and TT boy. I am fairly certain that it was better than the one released in actual theatres. I can't remember the name of it.

Anyway video game movies much like movies based on comic book characters need to be treated with the same sort of devotion that a movie like a batman movie(nolan) would get. X-men first class was great. X-men 3 was terrible.

Rev. Skarekroe:They did it by keeping the plot of the game intact and not winking at the audience. Someone realized, "Hey this is just Enter The Dragon with magic powers!" and stuck to that.

Bingo. the MK developers got that, while the street Fighter devs didn't. SF: the movie should have been the same: a bunch of warriors taking part in a tournament that was really a front for a criminal enterprise/dictator's army.

NeoCortex42:falcon176: iirc Mortal Kombat actually had people do their moves in the movie, while Street Fighter was just a bunch of normal people and it was really bad, but Van Damme did do a back flip kick which was supposed to be a flash kick, I guess, and Bison did fly through the air which was supposed to be a psycho crusher, maybe. really bad.

It was worth just for the scenery chewing of Raul Julia. He knew full well what kind of movie he was in and had fun with it.

A movie I havent seen mentioned here yet: Dead or Alive. Sure it was terrible, but it was still pretty fun. Plus, Eric Roberts.

Holy crap I love the Dead or Alive movie. It is so terrible I just have to laugh. Especially the sunglasses. WTF? Seen it three times, will probably see it more. So terrible.

I actually enjoyed the Street Fighter movie as well. For me it just reached the "so bad it's good" territory. Though not as much as DOA.

The MK soundtrack really was good. It sort of codified an 'electric rock' genre of the time. It was so good that they released 4-5 more compilations of music that wasn't really associated with the movie, but simply the same sort of stuff.

Samwise Gamgee:The MK soundtrack really was good. It sort of codified an 'electric rock' genre of the time. It was so good that they released 4-5 more compilations of music that wasn't really associated with the movie, but simply the same sort of stuff.

I was only aware of two for the first movie and one for the second, but yeah - surprisingly good soundtrack.

Jragghen:Samwise Gamgee: The MK soundtrack really was good. It sort of codified an 'electric rock' genre of the time. It was so good that they released 4-5 more compilations of music that wasn't really associated with the movie, but simply the same sort of stuff.

I was only aware of two for the first movie and one for the second, but yeah - surprisingly good soundtrack.

If you like that sort of music, the guy who composed goes by Praga Khan - in addition to his work with Lords of Acid and the MK soundtrack, he has 8 albums under his own name.

The original game was inspired by the old martial arts movies the creators watched when we were kids, and that showed in a lot of the move sets for the characters. When they took the chance by making a movie, they just went the way they came. The approach was right: don't make the game itself the movie.